My name is P.J. Agness and I've taken over creating memes for The Bad Roman Project. I don't want to sound self-important, but I believe memes are an important tool. After all, I came to Anarchism largely through memes. I just kept seeing these little images with messages that exposed contradictions in my thinking and inconsistencies in my theology.

WHY MEMES?

So why do I believe memes are such an important tool? Well, if you claim to be a citizen of Heaven, what do you do when the words of Jesus are put in stark contrast with images of a war that you supported? What do you do when you realize you're trying to defend a worldly system against a picture on the internet? Memes made me confront these contradictions in my own faith. My faith was in Christ, but I still wanted to be part of the world's political system. Those two things, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are in no way compatible. I needed my cognitive dissonance laid out in front of me. Laid bare in a single image. I hope to do that for others as well.  

It is curious that people tend to regard the government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. The government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; the government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus. 

Murray Rothbard

Right in front of my face, I'm seeing those words.  As I write this, many journalists are pleading with President Trump to keep American businesses shut down and nationalize industry in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They ardently beg the semi-divine federal government to save them. At the same time, the American people are clamoring for a stimulus bill that would result in them personally getting money from the Santa Clause-like federal government. The media and the citizenry are merely cheerleaders though. They lack any real power to play God. During these COVID-19 press conferences, Vice President Pence has repeatedly stated that through a fifteen-day period of social distancing, "we will no doubt heal our land". As an Evangelical, Pence is no doubt knowingly referencing 2 Chronicles 7:14. 

 In this passage, God promises to heal the land of his people if they turn their hearts back to him. It's disturbing to see anyone suggest the people or the government can heal our own land. The Trump administration isn't the first to try to be God. The Obama administration’s creation of a proxy army in Syria and overthrow of Muammar al-Gaddafi were certainly attempts at controlling world events. The Patriot Act under the Bush administration was an attempt to be the shepherds of the entire country, and this pattern certainly goes back many generations. FDR championed shaping the world through The United Nations and Woodrow Wilson followed suit in his plans for the Middle East in the wake of the Ottoman empire. The gospel of Statism has long been practiced by those in power and their acolytes in the media. 

The False Gospel

What we're seeing permeate every inch of our culture is a false gospel. I've heard it labeled as "the social justice gospel", or "the Evangelical Left" but I think that's only part of a new emerging religion. Belief in the state and its ability to save us, coupled with an individuals’ own political philosophies, has become its own religion. This new religion’s worshipers believe their way should dominate all areas of life, preached by teachers to kindergarten children, preached during every news story, preached during sporting events, preached as part of every television show and movie, and preached in children's books and the workplace.  

Any sin of thought, even those from one’s past, can result in threats of violence (such as Tucker Carlson's wife reported when protestors surrounded her house in November of 2018), or job loss (as Kevin Hart stepped down as host of The Oscars in 2018 over pasted tweets that were deemed offensive). It's harsh and Puritan, and the disciples of this religion aim to shut down any other way of thinking (just ask Ben Shapiro or Jordan Peterson about their troubles speaking at colleges). There's no convincing them their ideas may not be correct. They're blind to see that they claim to defend free speech with one breath, then fight against it in the other. Even as they claim to champion diversity, they won't tolerate any deviation in thought whatsoever. There are no facts and figures that will change their minds. There is no amount of reasoning that can convince anyone who won't even hear it. 

Memes and a Way Forward

The one true Gospel of Jesus is diametrically opposed to theirs.  It's a gospel of love, of forgiveness, of hope, of transformation, and of grace. The false gospel they believe in is one of coercion, shame, and control through fear.  So how do we show them the true gospel and deconstruct theirs? A meme. Not with an argument. There's no amount of reason that they'll listen to. They are so convinced of the righteousness of their ideas that they refuse to deal with any others. However, a meme has a way of being disarming. A single image that defeats their point is like a rhetorical Judo move that uses their own weight against them. It is the epitome of the William Shakespeare line "Brevity is the soul of wit".  However, as we push back against ideas we must not lose sight of Christ's love for the individual who holds those false ideas.